1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an authentication method, and a computer program for storing authentication information in storing means.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information processing apparatuses which perform authentication for restricting access to specific information are known. An example of such information processing apparatuses is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-020471. In the authentication performed in this information processing apparatus, a user name stored in a card and a password input by an operator are sent to a server for performing authentication on the basis of the user name and the password.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-158032 describes an information processing apparatus which implements an authentication method in which a pair of a user ID and a password is stored in association with one or a plurality of pairs of a login ID and a password. In this information processing apparatus, when the user ID and password are received from an external apparatus, login processing is performed for an application service provider using the login ID and password corresponding to the received user ID and password.
In order to perform authentication on the basis of authentication information corresponding to input identification information, it is necessary that the input identification information and the authentication information used for the authentication be associated with each other.
Thus, it is necessary that authentication information be associated with identification information before the identification information is input in the authentication performed in the known information processing apparatuses described above.
For example, in order for a user to input identification information using an IC card, it is necessary that the identification information and corresponding authentication information be registered in a database or the like in advance. Thus, authentication cannot be performed if the authentication information has not been registered. In this case, the user has to wait until the identification information and authentication information are registered in the database in association with each other. Then, the user has to input the identification information using the IC card to enable the authentication.